Books · People · Humour
One who writes a poem writes it above all because verse is a colossal accelerator of consciousness, of thinking, of one's sense of the universe. Having experienced this acceleration once, a person is no longer capable of abandoning the chance of repeating this experience; he falls into dependence
Aristocracy · Monarchies · People · Saint Petersburg
On 3 July 1895 at Peterhof was born Irina, Princess of the Imperial Blood, daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia. Princess Irina's father was a grandson of Nicholas I through the latter's youngest son, her mother a sister of Nicholas II. In
NB! · London · Society · People · Humour
Art · People
Christie's has put up an exceedingly rare etching by Van Dyck, bearing a sketch for his self-portrait. This lively, spontaneous sketch is the best evidence of Van Dyck's virtuosity as a draughtsman and portraitist. The image is known from the engraving by Jacob Neeffs, who
Faith · Books · People
Archbishop Platon, court preacher to Catherine II, on the nature of anxiety:. Inward disquiet proceeds from a reproachful conscience, which feels shame and remorse when the passions are followed against the dominion of the mind. Such a wretched state of the soul is not from God, but from a depraved
NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Museums · People
Archive · Art · People
Jemelia Pugatschew in prison. The German caption reads: A rebel in Russia under the assumed name of Tsar Peter III in the Orenburg Governorate. A very rare engraving by Hiller, c. 1780, with a portrait of Yemelyan Pugachev
Archive · Books · Mores · People · Humour
Knight of the Rueful Countenance, Dostoevsky, dear little puffball, on the nose of literature you glow like a fresh new pimple. Among Nekrasov's verses there is one entitled "Belinsky's Epistle to Dostoevsky", written in January 1846. It is sometimes described as "collective"
NB! · Books · People
NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · People
Still Life with Game, Vegetables and Fruit of 1602 by Juan Sánchez Cotán, the founder of Spanish realism. Can you catch the pleasant whiff of Caravaggism?
Archive · Monarchies · Observations · People
Catherine II compares herself with her innocently slain husband Peter III, as if to show that her happiness is built on the qualities of her character and her conduct. As, indeed, was the misfortune of Peter, the simpleton she deposed and whom her lover killed. Presumptuous of her, of course.
Archive · London · People
One of Winston Churchill's last public appearances was at the open window of his own home on his ninetieth birthday. That was the gift he chose to make to the public: a lion, by then gravely unwell and enfeebled, showing himself one last time. Barely a couple of